tube worm

i knoticed that *** i was adding about a cup of highly concentrated salt water to my tank it was getting blown by one of my feather dusters...he seemed to react badly and come about an inch out of his tube and kinda "looked around" any idea what this could mean....any info....thanks...
 
Why were you adding highly concentrated SW though? You shouldn't be adding water that is a highly different salinity directly to the main tank, at least not all at once. This will stress out animals, and if the salt is undissolved, could injure and "burn" them. If you need to raise the salinity for some reason, do so slowly (over hours or days), make sure everything is predissolved. Add to the sump instead. And keep in mind its not absolute salinity that is most harmful, it is sudden changes in salinity.

The duster is just reacting to this sudden change. When they get startled, they quickly shrink into the tube, but if conditions are stable, it'll come out again.
 
after i did this i knoticed that he released some sort of "spider webb" looking strands of something that like....well not sure...
 
It's just mucus. Dusters secrete the stuff to make their tubes. A lot of reef animals secrete or shed it when they are stressed. To put it uncouthly, it's kind of like their version of ----ing their pants :)
 
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